Nokia trots out jogger-friendly phone

Nokia today unveiled its first handset with "athletic lifestyle appeal" and the first - we'd say - to be made out of trainers. We kid you not - according to Nokia, the 5500 Sport "is engineered with materials used in the latest high performance running shoes".

Pitched at joggers and the like, the handset boasts a work-out mode that will time runs and plan your exercise schedule. It even contains a pedometer. A push of a button flips the handset into music mode, and again into phone mode. The 5500 uses MicroSD cards for music storage and it supports many of the most popular formats, Nokia said.

The handset also boasts that ability to read out text messages. It'll do the same with pedometer and work-out progress information.

The Nokia 5500 Sport is a tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS device. It's got a liquid and dirt-resistant casing with rubber grips, handy for when you're working up a sweat.

The phone's due to ship in Europe in Q3 for around €300 ($381/£205). It will be available in a 'sport' colour scheme - grey and yellow - and more business-like hues. ®